Our first book, More Than a Body, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is available everywhere! Get your copy today! Find it anywhere books are sold, including every retailer linked below:

The fact that you have a body — regardless of your appearance or ability level — means that you innately have access to physical power. Your body is an instrument to be used for your benefit, and not a burden to drag around, hiding and fixing along the way. Want to develop positive body image? When you learn to value your body for what it can do rather than what it looks like, you improve your body image and gain a more powerful sense of control. The truth is, regardless of what you look like, or what you think you look like, you can feel good about yourself because you are not your appearance. Value your body for what it can do by engaging in physical activity. It will change your life and boost your body image in a way you never thought possible.Our beauty-obsessed world perpetuates the idea that happiness, health, and ability to be loved are dependent on how we look, but authors Lindsay and Lexie Kite offer an alternative vision. With insights drawn from their extensive body image research, Lindsay and Lexie—PhDs and founders of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined (and also twin sisters!)—lay out an action plan that arms you with the skills you need to reconnect with your whole self and free yourself from the constraints of self-objectification. As you work to see yourself as more than a collection of parts to be viewed, fixed, ogled, and rejected, you realize how imperative it is that your partner sees and values you for more, too. In past or present relationships, you might have felt the sting of objectification in your interactions — maybe in the way you were viewed and treated by your partner, but maybe also in the ways you have viewed and treated your partner.

The world needs this book and the revolution the Kite sisters are fighting. While reading this book, I felt a tidal wave of anger chapter after chapter. I’m angry with the beauty industry, media, diet culture, and my own self-objectification. I’m angry for my 7-year-old self who already felt embarrassed when I went to my dance class because I was bigger than the other girls. I’m angry for my own little girls, and the world I cannot shield them from. I wanted to like this book as it came well-recommended by a friend. But I just can't. I am sorry, my friend. Recently, I have started biking and I am super excited by the way my body has responded. I have quadrupled my distance within 3 weeks, even after having the flu last week.” However, look past the focus on that age group and the myriad of ways the authors try to get young women to view the world differently, and there’s a very important message that is being delivered. Which is that the body positivity movement, while increasingly successful at expanding the definition of a beautiful body, still objectifies the female body. The authors’ well-argued thesis is that those of us who are in secure positions, financially and in our relationships, need to fight against objectification of the female body of any size. The book title sums it up: We are more than bodies.An indispensable resource for women of all ages, this is a guide to help us better connect to ourselves, to value ourselves, to love ourselves, and ultimately, to be ourselves." (Chelsea Clinton) I did agree with the idea that men should school their thoughts to not see women as objects. I will take it a step further: teach women not to see men as objects. I cannot tell you how many times I have been part of or overheard a conversation of a bunch of ladies admiring a male's physique in an objectifying way. If we are going to be fair, it has to be fair. An indispensable resource for women of all ages, this is a guide to help us better connect to ourselves, to value ourselves, to love ourselves, and ultimately, to be ourselves."—Chelsea Clinton This book could save your life. In a lively and engaging style, Lindsay and Lexie discuss the grave harm caused by self-objectification and offer remedies that encourage resilience. A most welcome addition to the literature on body image.”

The objectifying messages in our culture tell us to think of our own bodies from an outside perspective, as though we were looking in at ourselves. This is called self-objectification. Studies show that when girls are self-conscious of their looks, they don’t do as well on math, reading, or physical fitness tests. That doesn’t mean a relationship where objectification is present is destined to fail or can’t be fixed, but it does mean that both you and your partner have some work to do if you want to progress. Because of this book and the anger it stirred, I finally threw away my scale. It felt so liberating. I’m committing now to stopping that diet talk with friends and family. I’m raising my girls to believe their bodies are instruments, not ornaments. I’m deciding to trust my body. I’m striving to be fully present, not half present and half evaluating how I might be appearing to other people. I’m choosing to invest my time and energy in my family, my spirituality, creating a homey home, reading, and writing. Trigger Warning: If you struggle with overexercising or orthorexia, please be cautious and mindful of how this discussion might affect you.Lindo Bacon, PhD, researcher and author of Radical Belonging, Body Respect, and Health at Every Size Instead of fighting for more women’s bodies to be viewed as valuable, let’s fight for women to be valued as more than bodies to view.

At age 15, we both quit swimming—not because we hated to swim but because we hated the way we looked in our swimsuits. Our years of relentlessly trying to “fix” our bodies simply hadn’t worked. Q: What’s your advice to women who feel that both their own health and appearance would benefit from weight loss? Q: You discuss objectification throughout the book. When does objectification become self-objectification? How can both forms of objectification be remedied by individuals when they originate outside of us? Reclaim your body as your own. The best thing you can do for your relationship is to not spend one more day fixated on losing weight or planning cosmetic procedures or fighting off aging to change your body for your partner’s approval. That is an unsustainable, short-term plan for what you need from what should hopefully be a lasting, loving relationship. You are more than a body, and you are doing your absolute best living inside a dynamic, growing, changing body. Your relationship with your partner, your kids, and yourself is hurt when you fixate on your body, as you ride the roller coaster of emotions and self-esteem that goes up and down by the minute depending on what you ate, how much you worked out, how you look, etc.More Than a Body is a welcome salve for those who are weary of the internal war with their body. Through their groundbreaking body image resilience model, Lexie and Lindsay offer many practical ways to make peace with your body, showing how body image disruptions can be a pathway for healing, rather than provoke a descent into a shame spiral. Ultimately, readers will find real solutions to reunite with their whole, embodied selves.” I totally agree that clothes can be hard to find in certain shapes and sizes. I am one of those sizes, but when I look around, most people are hard to fit no matter what their size. But the history of clothing sizes and why they are what they are is another story that the authors didn't study that much.